JERUSALEM, Israel & NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--OurCrowd and Waterfund announced today that they will build a dedicated investment portfolio of 15 leading water and agricultural technology companies. Waterfund committed $50 million of capital to the OurCrowd managed portfolio, with an initial investment completed in Plenty, Inc., a vertical farming leader.
The companies also announced that they are jointly working on an innovative water-focused platform called Aquantos. Aquantos will be a financial product platform pioneering the issuance of Blue Bonds and other innovative water investment products.
Scott Rickards, CEO of Waterfund, said: “We are working to issue Blue Bonds that can be both climate bonds-certified and backed by sovereign or sub-sovereign borrowers. This new financial tool and others are being designed to enable water projects in the Middle East to acquire leading technologies to address water scarcity in a fundamentally new way.”
According to Morgan Stanley Institute for Sustainable Investing, sustainable investing assets now total more than $30 trillion globally—up 34% over the last two years. In the United States alone, one in four dollars—$12 trillion—is sustainably invested.
“In 2016, the Paris Agreement heightened interest in green bonds; in the years since, we’ve seen a spike in companies, municipalities, sovereigns and banks issuing green bonds. We expect that demand for next generation water-oriented bond products will see similar growth,” Rickards said.
“The lack of private capital has held back the huge growth potential of the water innovation sector. Waterfund’s partnership with OurCrowd is designed to solve those challenges by offering equity investments in innovative tech companies and debt financing to carefully selected projects and water-saving technologies. Waterfund is constantly seeking innovations to attract private capital to water,” Rickards added.
Jon Medved, Founder & CEO of OurCrowd, said: “The Abraham Accords present a huge opportunity to bring new water and agricultural technology to the water scarcity challenges of the entire Middle East. Alongside Waterfund, it is our mission to invest in and help build game-changing technology companies. We are excited to be working together with Waterfund to drive more private capital to address the critical challenges of water.”
About Waterfund: Waterfund was founded in 2013 to direct private capital into global water assets. The company invests in, operates, and manages water treatment solutions and technologies on a global basis. Waterfund also publishes advanced data analytics through its proprietary platform developed in partnership with IBM (the “Water Cost Index,” or “WCI”), enabling innovative, metric-based investment decision making and climate-based risk mitigation. For more information visit www.worldswaterfund.com.
About OurCrowd: OurCrowd is a global venture investment platform that empowers institutions and individuals to invest and engage in emerging companies. With $1.5 billion of committed funding, and investments in more than 240 portfolio companies and 25 venture funds, OurCrowd offers access to its membership of 80,000 individual accredited and institutional investors, family offices, and venture capital partners from over 195 countries to invest alongside, at the same terms. Rated by PitchBook as the most active venture investor in Israel, OurCrowd portfolio companies have been acquired by some of the most prestigious brands in the world, including Microsoft, Uber, Canon, Oracle, Nike, and Intel. To register visit www.ourcrowd.com.